SALT LAKE CITY – Jeff Hornacek said he’s not being judged by a won-loss record, reiterating president Steve Mills’ offseason theme that making the playoffs is not the ultimate priority for the 2017-18 season.

In a similar message he made on Martin Luther King Day, Hornacek said the playoff talk has come more from players and that management and the coaching staff is still bent on development, forming a defensive identity and “to keep the big picture in mind.” Indicating a playoff berth is gravy, the Knicks coach acknowledged for the first time the club’s early winning record was partly because of a favorable home schedule.

At the morning shootaround Friday in the Utah arena in which his Jazz jersey is retired, Hornacek responded to speculation he’s coaching for his job amid this current freefall. It’s something hardly new since he has one year left on his contract and Phil Jackson, who hired Hornacek, is no longer here.

Hornacek invoked his coaching stint in Phoenix when expectations changed after he posted a 48-34 record in his rookie year in 2013-14.

However, Hornacek insisted Mills and GM Scott Perry have not changed the long-term plan for the Knicks. An NBA source confirmed nothing has changed, that playoffs has never been the No. 1 priority for management this season as they hold their own first-round pick in the last year of the current lottery format.

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“In Phoenix, the plan was rebuilding and [we] got off and had a great year,’’ Hornacek said. “Then the expectations changed, the mentality changed. Here we talked about rebuilding and got off to a good start because we had a lot of home games. But Scott, Steve, we’re still on the same page, giving our young guys opportunities. We’re still trying to win games. We want to establish where we have an identity defensively [that] we’re going to get after it all the time. We’re building toward that and it’s great to have that support.’’

Mark Jackson and former Cavs coach David Blatt, back in Europe and one of Mills’ close friends, have long been mentioned as potential successors to Hornacek, who signed a three-year deal before the 2016-17 season. The Post has reported multiple times Mills tried to sway Phil Jackson into interviewing Mark Jackson after the Steve Kerr negotiations broke down in 2014.

The Knicks are amid a 3-11 stretch to drop their record to 20-25 – a season-worst five games under .500. However, they still stand just three games out of the eighth seed. The 76ers and Pistons are tied for that final spot.

“Expectations come from the players all of a sudden,’’ Hornacek said after their fast start. “You hear him talking about ‘we can make the playoffs.’ We’ve never said that. We said we want to get better and want to grow and part of our talk is you can’t worry about the results. Go out there and try to improve and the results will come. Sometimes thinking about winning or losing, the mentality becomes different. We got to get back to that.”

Willy Hernangomez has played sparingly this season.Paul J. Bereswill

On Monday, Hornacek said that the No. 1 goal is development over the playoffs and the team got too wrapped up in the playoff race.

The only contradictory part of Hornacek’s message is he has yet to put young bedrock center Willy Hernangomez into the rotation this season after a First-Team All-Rookie campaign. That could be part of an overall strategy of building up the trade value of Kyle O’Quinn before the Feb. 8 deadline. Hornacek’s remarks lend to the potential of a fire sale with some other expendable veterans.

“You always want to win,’’ Hornacek said. “We know it’s a process we have to grow to. Players want to win every game, coaches want to win every game, management wants to win every game. But you also ask, are we making strides to keep the big picture in mind. Are we just trying to win games and the strides stop?”